Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-05-01

he will do well. An old hand can do five
feet; good one six, and q champion
over seven.
Now do the swing and dip with jumps
backward and forward, and get friend
to stand in front of the ends of the bars
while you try the Spanish cut off, Fac
ing the ends of the bars with your
hands near the extremities, swing
the legs backward and upward.
When they are above the bars
spread them apart and bring them for
ward, lifting the hands to let them pass.
The gymnast should land on the mat in a
standing posture beyond the ends OF the
bars. Sometimes the beginner lands on
his back, but he must accept
such little incidents as amusing. His
friends will if he don't.
The young gymnsst is now ready TO
branch out in the finesse of art so far as
the parallel bars are concerned, and il he
is in the hands of competent instructor
graceful and difficult "acts" that can be
done on pair Of parallels.
Turning a handspring of the end
of the bars is always pretty and
always gets round of applause at an
prised to find how easy this is. This
illustrates common thing. In gYmnsstic
exhibitions the feats requiring ne hardest
practice and the greatest amount of
strength meet with the least applause,
while those which require only ''knack"
and can be done by any one possessing a
little nerve, often bring down the house.
The horizontal bar affords the greatest
opportunities for the show gymnast
Every one knows what the horizontal bar
is, and every one has seen the brilliant
featS performed on it by circus men.
Remarkable as their dOIngs may appear,
there is not one of their "acts" that can
not be learned by the amateur gymnast.
OF course, the aim of every horizontal
bar performer is to do g good "giant
swing" This consists in grlsping the
bar with both hands and revolving around
! it at arms length. The danger lies in
the possibility of losing ones hold, when
| he may be projected into space with more
| force than beauty. In learning this feat
pair of straps IS used. They are
sewn together at the ends, forming
circles. They are passed around
! the bar and then twisted around
the learners wrists. If his hands chance
! to slip off the straps prevent him from
! sailing off into the air. a very striking
way of concluding giant swing is by the
i "tack away" When the body IS in
horizontal position in front Of the bar
during a revolution, the face being
upward, the performer let's go
and throws his head backward and
downward, at the same time bending his
back. He turns completely over as he
flies away from the bar and lands on his
feet. In learning this act belt with q
long strap attached to each side is worn.
A man holds each strap and sup
ports the learner thus in case
he is in danger of falling. The
learner will find that, though he may have
great confidence after becoming expert in
performing the feat with the belt on, the
moment he takes it off he will become
nervous again. He should have skilled
teacher to stand near him when he first
tries it without the belt. The same belt
is used in t aching the young gymnast TO
turn back sOmerssuIt.
There are other varieties of gEmnastiC
| work. Those mentioned are the principal
ones. The man who has to sit in an of
flee all day can 60 to his gymnasium for
an hour IN the evening and get all the eX-
ercise neediul for health and strength.
Ones acquired, the ability to do gym
nastic feats may be retained foy
years. Daily practice is ell that is
necessary. 1t is mistake to suppose
that man must give up gymnastics when
he has got along to say thirty years of
age. If he will continue to practice sn
hour daily he msY go on doing good back
and front sOmersaults until his
children are old enough to
take lessons from him. And if he
cannot spare the time to 60 to a gymnG-
SUM he can keep up his muscle at home.
rive minutes dumb bell exercise before
going to bed, a few pushes up and down
on the backs of two chairs by way OF
parallels, and five minutes cIub-sWinging
in the morning will preserve for many
years the muscles developed in the gym
nasium.
One thing should never be neglected.
If d man wants to get the very best pos
sible benefit out of his gymnastic work,
let him always finish with a bath. The
water should not be warm, nor yet quite
cold, and the ablution should be ended
with cold shower bath. After that lei
the gymnast rub down hard with Turk.
ish bath fowl and dress himself. He will
leave the gymnasium feeling as if he
could whip John L. Sullivan, eat g Texas
steer, or go around the world on q to.
boggan.